About SolarAid

SolarAid is an international charity founded in 2006 to combat poverty and climate change. Through our social enterprise, SunnyMoney, we provide access to solar lights in Malawi and Zambia to help catalyse solar markets with renewable light.

590 million people in Africa alone have no access to electricity. Without electricity families have no clean source of light, leaving millions to rely on expensive and dangerous alternatives.

Solar lights are safe, clean and affordable. It is a small, but smart innovation that gives off hours of light in the evening so families can earn, learn and feel safe after dark. Just one lamp can transform the future for an entire family and is the first step out of poverty.

SunnyMoney – our social enterprise

Our model is built on selling lights through our social enterprise, SunnyMoney. This allows money to be reinvested back into our work, encourages job creation and ensures money stays in the local economy. Through working as a social enterprise, we can do things that conventional businesses can’t. We travel to remote rural communities, educate people about the benefits of solar, instil trust and build demand. We help get lights to the people that need them most – and if they are unable to afford them – then we think of new and innovative ways to help them get on the energy ladder, such as pay as you go solar.

Together, we can make sure that no home, no school, no clinic in Africa is left in the dark by 2030.

 

 

Our Finances

A donation to SolarAid is one of the best value gifts on the planet. Check out our impact calculator to see just how far your donation will stretch.

Visit our Charity Commisions page for more information.

  • For every £1 spent 81p goes on charitable work
  • Covering the £15 cost of a solar light will save a family living below the poverty line  £126

SolarAid is registered with the Fundraising Regulator.

Learn more about us

How we work

We do charity differently. We have adopted a model where we create a local market which allows our solar lights to reach those places and the people that the traditional market do not reach. It gives our beneficiaries ownership over their lights. We believe in Trade not Aid.

Where we work

We reach the most remote and disadvantaged communities to create sustainable markets for renewable energy. We are operating through our social enterprise, SunnyMoney in Zambia and Malawi, with partner organisations in Senegal and Uganda.

Our social enterprise

Our Social Enterprise SunnyMoney was set up in 2008 and is one of the main sellers of solar lights in Africa. SunnyMoney Agents travel to remote rural communities to make clean light available where there were previously only unhealthy and expensive alternatives, like kerosene lamps and candles.

Our impact

man cooking
  • 2.2M

    solar lights distributed worldwide.

  • 12M

    people reached by clean, safe, renewable light.

  • 2.4M

    tonnes CO2 emissions averted from the atmosphere.